The "ball" that suddenly flew out not only shocked Kingo Sakai and others, but also made Qingto stunned.
After the white smoke rose from the "ball", the confusion on Qingden's face instantly turned into shock.
--smoke bomb!
Nowadays, in the mid-19th century when muskets and artillery dominate the seven continents and steam battleships roam the five oceans, it is not unusual for smoke bombs and other special weapons to appear.
I don’t know if the white smoke is tear-inducing, poisonous, or has some other effect. No matter what, you must be careful.
"You two! Watch out for the smoke! Stay back! Get out of here!"
While Aoto retreated violently, he held his breath, narrowed his eyes, and shouted a warning to Sanako and Souji behind him.
Qingdeng was far away from the impact point of the smoke bomb, so he was lucky enough to avoid the most dangerous area.
On the contrary, Sakai Kingo and others who were closest to the smoke bomb were in dire straits.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"
"My eyes! Oooh ooh ooh!"
"Be careful! Don't let the smoke get into your eyes!"
…
In the thick smoke that filled everywhere, coughs and screams could be heard one after another.
Judging from the screams of Sakai Jingo and others, the white smoke should be non-toxic, but it is very irritating to people's eyes.
——There is a third party present...!
A look of solemnity swept over Qingdeng's eyebrows.
It is still unclear whether this "other force" that suddenly appeared is an enemy or a friend, so we must be cautious.
In such a situation where there is thick smoke, it is difficult to use your eyes.
Fortunately, after receiving special training from the new Yutingban and with the blessing of a certain talent, vision is no longer the sense Qingden is best at using.
He immediately closed his eyes and used his ears to identify the current situation.
"Sacred Brain +9", "Perceiver of Wind" activates!
These two talents are a perfect match.
The former enhances the brain's fatigue resistance, allowing the brain to process more information. With its cooperation, the latter's talent effect is significantly enhanced.
Although the hearing has not changed much, the ability to analyze the "sounds heard" has improved a lot.
All kinds of sounds flooded into Qingdeng's ears like a flood.
In the midst of this chaos, Qingdeng heard three unfamiliar hurried footsteps.
The owner of these three footsteps plunged into the white mist and ran straight towards Nishino and Phoenix House Yataro...
…
…
After about half a minute, the smoke finally dissipated.
"Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Sakai Kingo wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and slowly opened his bloodshot eyes.
Although my eyes are still very sore, I can barely see.
After his vision recovered, Kingo Sakai immediately scanned the scene to inspect the scene.
There was no one left behind, which made him feel a little relieved.
But after a while, his face became serious again.
"Where are Nishino Hoseijiro and Phoenix House Yataro?! Where are the three thieves wearing bamboo hats?!"
The vassal soldiers who had recovered their eyesight at this time were startled when they heard this, and then they looked up.
The white smoke that has not yet dissipated, the formation in ruins, and the fallen companions all over the ground... Qingdeng and others are nowhere to be seen.
Aoto, Sanako and Souji are missing... Nishino and Phoenix House Yataro are also missing...
"hateful……!"
Sakai Kingo gritted his teeth.
"Did you let them escape..."
As soon as this statement came out, everyone at the scene couldn't help but criticize.
Sakai Kingo said this as if they were almost able to subdue Ayoto and others, but accidentally let them escape.
However, judging from the actual battle situation, it is more likely that Qingdeng and others let them go...
In fact, Sakai Kingo thought so too.
He himself also knows that what he said just now is a bit flattering.
Aoto and others left, and the battle that was unilaterally defeated by Aoto was over... Faced with this situation, Sakai Kingo felt a little bit lucky while not being resigned to it.
In order to save his face, he pretended to say, "What a pity! We couldn't catch those thieves!" and stopped investigating the whereabouts of Qingdeng and others. Instead, he ordered his subordinates who could still move to quickly arrest them.
Pick up the injured and send them to heal.
While everyone at the scene was busy cleaning up the aftermath, there was one person who stood there stupidly, motionless.
At the moment of Bosui's eyes... no, it should be said that from the moment "Nishino picked up the sword again", he showed an extremely complicated expression. His eyes were straight, as if he was in a daze, but also as if he was thinking about something.
.
After a while, he raised his head, looked at the night sky above his head, and let out a long sigh.
"Nishino-kun...you are definitely not made to be a samurai..."
…
…
Edo, a deserted river beach——
"Huh...huh...huh...this dead fat pig...! It's so damn heavy!"
Akutsu threw Phoenix House Yataro off his back angrily. He completely ignored the other person's feelings, and his movements were as rough as throwing away garbage.
Phoenix House Yataro's fat body hit the ground heavily, making a dull sound like a rice bag falling to the ground.
Ebina turned to Ichinose beside him and asked:
"Ichinose, how is Nishino-kun's condition?"
Ichinose replied with a serious expression:
"It's very bad, abdominal injuries, lacerations, massive bleeding... To be honest, it's a miracle that Nishino-kun can survive until now."
"Can it be cured?"
Ebina asked.
"..."
Ichinose was silent...
His silence was equivalent to answering Ebina's question.
Ebina pursed her lips, and then sighed:
"Ichinose, do your best..."
"Yeah...I will."
After saying that, Ichinose laid Nishino flat on the ground, and then took out linen cloth and several medicine bottles from his pocket.
"It's...you guys..."
Nishino struggled to open his eyes.
Opening your eyes - this is a simple action for ordinary people.
But Nishino at the moment couldn't even perform such a simple action...
He reluctantly opened his eyes halfway.
The trembling eyelids seemed ready to fall at any moment.
As of now, Nishino was quite energetic.
Until he saw Ebina and others arriving, his heart relaxed... In an instant, unprecedented fatigue and sleepiness surged through his body.
Ebina knelt down and gave Nishino a wry, apologetic smile.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. The guards in the Phoenix House are much more difficult to deal with than we thought."
"You... have found my grandson..."
Nishino moved his eyes and looked at my grandson's body on Ebina's back.
Ebina nodded slightly.
"Well, when we came to look for you, we found my grandson's body halfway."
At this time, Nishino was surprised to find that both the elders Ebina and Ichinose, and the young Akutsu, all had calm faces...as if my grandson's death in battle was a trivial matter to them.
Ebina saw through Nishino's inner thoughts and smiled slightly:
"'Comrade Sacrifice' - we have long been accustomed to this kind of thing. It is no exaggeration to say that this is what we, the people of the Great Salt Party, have been most accustomed to in the past 20 years. It is probably better than eating and drinking.
We still need to get used to water. If we all cry every time a comrade dies, then we don’t have so many tears to shed."
Suddenly, Phoenix House Yataro's pleading voice attracted everyone's attention.
"Please, please let me go!"
Everyone looked around and saw Phoenix House Yataro curled up and trembling all over.
Let’s take a closer look at Phoenix House Yataro’s experience tonight… In less than half an hour, he experienced the ups and downs of his life—and several ups and downs.
First, he was kidnapped by Nishino and my grandson. He finally saw the opportunity to escape, but was caught up by Nishino again.
Fortunately, Sakai Kingo showed up in time and thought he was saved. However, Nishino turned out to be like a mad dog and would not let go of Sakai Kingo and others even if he was an enemy.
Immediately afterwards, three more mysterious people wearing bamboo hats and unknown origins popped out and asked him by name.
And now, he was kidnapped by someone he didn't know at all...
Even a novelist would not dare to write about such a tortuous experience, which almost caused him to have a nervous breakdown.
"You, you, you, who are you? Please let me go! Do you want money? As long as you are willing to let me go, I will give you any amount you want!"
"Let you go?"
Akutsu laughed out loud as if he heard some funny joke.
In the next breath, he used his left leg as the axis and swung his right foot like a whip, hitting Phoenix Yataro's face right in the face.
A very nice side kick.
Several broken teeth flew out of Phoenix House Yataro's mouth, and blood mixed with saliva flowed all over the floor.
"Uh! Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Phoenix House Yataro covered his swollen cheeks and screamed like a slaughtered pig.
"Are you kidding me? Why don't you let us go when you, the bastards who have killed thousands of people, are hoarding goods and would rather let the rice in the warehouse rot than sell it to the hungry people who are about to starve to death at a low price?
ah?!"
After roaring, Akutsu tried his best to kick again.
Ebina quickly dashed to Akutsu's side and stretched out his hand to hold his shoulder.
"Akutsu, that's enough, calm down."
Akutsu turned his eyes sideways and cast an indignant glance at Ebina.
"Ebina-sama, I am a farmer, so...you should be able to understand how I feel, right? Asking a farmer to remain calm in front of a privileged businessman is too much, right?"
Ebina sighed "Alas".
"Akutsu, I am also a farmer, and I am a farmer who has experienced the Tenbao Famine... Of course I understand how you feel."
"If possible, I would also like to torture all the unkind beasts in this world to death."
"However... we'd better bear with it for now."
"If you kick Phoenix House Yataro to death, then all our efforts and sacrifices tonight will be in vain."
Akutsu was stunned.
After a moment of silence, he slowly lowered his lifted leg.
Ebina patted Akutsu on the shoulder. Just when he was about to say some words of comfort, his expression suddenly changed.
People who also changed their expressions were Ichinose and Akutsu.
The three of them turned around at the same time and faced the southeast. What caught their eyes was a thick darkness that could not be illuminated by the moon.
"...Uninvited 'guest', please show up."
After saying this in a calm tone without sadness or joy, Ebina stretched out his hand to hold the sword at his waist.
As soon as he finished speaking, the darkness they were staring at began to "squirm".
After a while, Qingden, Souji and Sanako walked out of the darkness.
"You guys are so amazing. You can run so fast even when each of you is carrying one person on your back."
With that said, Aomori walked leisurely to the front of Ebina, his arms hanging naturally without any fighting posture.
After hearing that someone was taking away Nishino and Phoenix House Yataro under the cover of thick smoke, Aoto immediately led Sanako and Souji to pursue them.
The moving speed of Ebina and the others is really unexpected. Each one carries one person... no, to be precise, each carries "two people and one corpse", but they can still run so fast.
Qingdeng almost lost track of their footsteps several times.
Fortunately, we managed to catch up with them in the end.
Perhaps because he saw that Seito was not hostile, Ebina's facial lines relaxed slightly, but his eyes were still full of vigilance.
"May I ask who your Majesty is?"
Qingden shrugged:
"I still want to know who you are."
Although he said so, Qingdeng actually knew these three people.
Just half a year ago, after watching the fireworks with Sanako, he encountered these three people on his way home, and briefly had a battle with the guy among them who was playing with a sword.
He later learned that these three people were loyalists of the Great Salt Party.
Although they all covered their faces at that time, Qingden still remembered their voices and weapons - after all, Suokama was an uncommon and unpopular weapon.
Why are the people from the Great Salt Party here?
Why does Hosejiro Nishino hang out with members of the Great Salt Party?
Why are they carrying my grandson's body?
All kinds of questions made Qingdeng feel confused.
Especially the body of my grandson... To be honest, Qingdeng can't believe his eyes until now...
Although my eyes have confirmed countless times that the body carried by Ebina is indeed my grandson, and I have accepted this reality rationally, my emotions cannot keep up with the current situation...
The first colleague Qingden met in the Huofu Thieves Reform was my grandson.
They have worked together, shed blood, and fought bandits... The friendship between the two parties is not very deep, but it is not shallow either.
In addition, Qingdeng also learned from my grandson how to lead the army, control logistics, and manage organizations. In addition to being colleagues and comrades-in-arms, the two also had a teacher-student relationship.
Although my grandson always gives people a mysterious feeling, Qingdeng has always liked this colleague who speaks in a strange way.
My grandson died in a mysterious way... Faced with this cold fact, Qingdeng had mixed feelings for a moment and didn't know what expression to make...
Seeing that Aoden had no intention of revealing his identity, Ebina didn't force him and asked instead:
“I’m not satisfied and I’m here, so what do you want?”
Since the other party got straight to the point, Qingdeng was not polite.
He suppressed the surging emotions in his heart, adjusted his mood, and said slowly:
"I don't want to be your enemy. The reason why I'm here is just to recover that fat man. Also, I want to ask you two questions: Why do you have the body of the leader of the first team that was changed by a bandit? Why do you want to
Take away the concentric spirit of Kitaban's chosen town?"
As soon as Qingden finished speaking, Akutsu's thick eyebrows shrugged at the bulging corners of his eyes.
"Ah? Who are you? What are we doing..."
Akutsu was about to explode, but Ebina stretched out his hand to stop him.
Ebina stared at Qingteng.
"What do you want this fat guy to do?"
"What a coincidence, I also want to ask you: Why did you catch that damn fat man?"
Neither side gave in.
Negotiations reached a deadlock...
In this solemn atmosphere, Ebina sighed suddenly.
"If this continues, there will be no end... Okay, let us show sincerity first."
After saying that, Ebina took the initiative to lift the hat on his head and pulled down the black cloth from his face.
He took off his hat and showed his face so quickly and resolutely that Ichinose and Akutsu couldn't even stop him.
"We are patriots of the Great Salt Party, and our name is Ye Zong."
Ebina spoke in a sonorous tone, word for word.
"Now, as you can see, I have revealed my face and name. Now, it's your turn. If you are still hiding your head...then there is no need for us to continue talking."
As Ebina finished speaking, the eyes of everyone present, including Sanako and Souji, all fell on Aoto.
Qingdeng was silent for a moment thoughtfully——
"...I understand. Since you have taken the initiative to show your kindness, it would be rude of me if I didn't give you an effective response."
After finishing speaking, Qingdeng untied the tether hanging from his chin.
The hat slipped off... At this moment, as if it had been rehearsed in advance, the facial expressions of Ebina and others changed uniformly - their eyes widened and their mouths opened slightly, as if they had seen a ghost.
A deathly silence fell between the two parties...
About 10 seconds later, Ebina finally turned his shock into a voice:
"Nioh...?"
Qingden nodded slightly.
"As you can see...it's me. We meet again."
As he spoke, Qingden specifically turned his head to the side and glanced at Akutsu, who had fought with him once.
Ebina and the others looked at each other in confusion.
The mysterious man who suddenly appeared was the "Nioh" Tachibana Aoden... Even Ebina, a veteran of the world, couldn't help but feel at a loss.
Just at this time……
"Ebina! Ebina!"
The sudden shout caused Ebina's expression to change instantly.
"Ichinose! What's wrong?"
While Aoto was negotiating with Ebina, Ichinose had been meticulously treating Nishino's injuries.
"Ebina, Nishino-kun, he...he...um? Nishino-kun?"
Under everyone's keen gaze, Nishino slowly sat up.
"Does any of you... carry... a sword...?"
Nishino said feebly, while pulling open the front of his clothes, revealing his belly that was already covered in blood...
*******
*******
At this point, Qingdeng was on the line with the three major forces: Huluwu, Fazhu Party, and Great Salt Party.
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This chapter has been completed!